Belleville-area real estate agents say sales are up

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Some Belleville-area real estate agents were surprised to hear existing home sales in the area have dropped 9 percent since last year.

"Our business is up from last year and up from the year before," said Barb Davidson, the broker manager at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Belleville. "We have seen no downturn."

Roxann Bohstedt, a real estate broker at Strano & Associates Realtors GMAC in O'Fallon, said she also has seen an increase.

"We're ahead of last year, significantly," she said. "We have seen a steady increase."

The report, released this week by the Illinois Association of Realtors, also revealed that the Greater Gateway Association of Realtors, which includes real estate in Madison County, witnessed a slight jump in existing home sales by 0.7 percent. Existing home sales across the state increased by 0.8 percent.

Neither Belleville Association of Realtors President Doug Payne nor Greater Gateway Association of Realtors President Al Suguitan were available for comment.

Joy Dean, the director of administrative services at Greater Gateway, said both statewide and nationwide home sales were strong. She said with the winter weather and war in Iraq over, sales should remain that way.

Dean also said the National Association of Realtors recently reported that 2002 was the second-best year ever for the U.S. housing market, while the rate for a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage has held at 5.93 percent.

Davidson also said low interest rates continue to drive the market, and many have moved here from St. Louis because it is less expensive.

Bohstedt said "creative financing" is what has allowed more people to enter the housing market than before, and buyers are putting down less money.

"It's amazing how creative they're being," she said.

She also said she has seen more military families buying homes, and record-low interest rates have prevailed to help keep sales up.